Following a Lead
by axe021
Summary: Quinn is fighting Swain. Only problem:Swain has some news for Quinn,that completely throws her off her game. With this startling new information revealed, how will Quinn react? Does she even dare believe the Noxian mastermind? Because, if what he says is true, then her whole life will be thrown for a loop. But if one thing is for certain, it is this: She'll always want to find him.
1. Jericho SWAIN!

**I don't know what an author's note is, but after reading a few stories, it seems to me it's just a bunch of bold font word in front of a story. So yeah this is it. It also seems to me that it usually has the words "I don't own (blank)" somewhere so yeah, I don't own this LoL thing. So please don't sue me. That would not be very nice. k' thanks. **

**From Quinn's pov**

It was just another battle. At least it was supposed to be. The place was Summoner's rift. I was in the middle lane, a place where I didn't really want to be, but the rest of my team had already called the top and bottom ones. No matter though. But it was difficult, trying to push early on. Eventually, I came to face who the opposing team sent to stop me. I gritted my teeth as I saw who it was. The Noxian mastermind, Jericho Swain. Upon seeing him as well, Valor quickly swooped down to mark him, trying to give me an easy target. Swain's confusion quickly turned to realization and then pain as I hit him with a hard shot. Straightening up he leered at me, and then quickly set his raven off to try to counter me. But the raven didn't go for me. I watched, horrified, as the powerful bird went after Valor.

"Valor, to me!" I shouted, panicky. Valor let out a squawk and quickly ducked under the raven's lazar, narrowly escaping disaster, and landed softly on my shoulder giving the raven a somewhat dignified look as he did so. I glared at Swain. "You can't attack Valor! That's against the rules."

Swain gave me a mundane look. "And where in the rule book does it say that?"

I paused. Did we even have a rule book?

As if reading my mind Swain chortled and called his raven back to him. "All's fair in love and war, is it not? Nevertheless I promise not to hurt your little friend, if you insist."

Valor let a out a sound of protest at the word "little" and I glared at the tactician. "Valor's not little! He's just as capable as any other bird out there!"

Swain shrugged. "So do you want me to attack him or not?"

The question took me by surprise. "We-Well no, but.." I looked at Valor who had looked just as confused as I was.

Swain sighed. "Very well. I understand. I won't attack your bird."

"Yes, thank you, I…huh?" I can't believe I just thanked Swain. I glared at him and Valor lifted up my shoulder to swoop in and mark him again.

Swain asked. "Do you really think I'd fall for that again?" I lifted my crossbow and took aim but Swain simply backed off and stood calmly behind his minions. I growled in disappointment and I started to pick off his minions one at a time. Out of the corner of my eye I watched Swain, trying to figure out what he was going to do next. But Swain just stood there regarding me and tilting his head to the side, as if he were trying to remember something. It was actually a bit unnerving.

I finished the last of his minions and focused on Swain. Valor noticed me and gave me a questioning look. I nodded, and Valor flew to my shoulder. I spent less than a second setting up a straight line at Swain. Then I set Valor free. "Gouge em' Valor!"

Swain simply just stood there as Valor flew straight at him. He made no reaction whatsoever as Valor attempted to claw his eyes, other than to, well, try to shield his eyes. And when Valor flew off, he continued to stare at me as if nothing had happened. It was really unsettling.

"Okay, what is it?!" I yelled at him. Swain stared at me as if nothing had happened. I let out a frustrated scream and raised my crossbow and aimed it at his head when he finally spoke.

"Efficient strategy…impeccable decisions…. sending the bird to blind me…that was cunning…"

I had no idea what he was talking about, and the grip on my bow loosened a little. It took a few seconds for me to get over whatever he was saying and raise my bow again. But giving no signs of caring that I was about to end his kill streak he simply raised his head and spoke to me in a calm, smooth voice.

"Tell me…what was your name?"

My jaw dropped. He was asking my name in the middle of me trying to kill him?

"Quinn." I snapped.

"Quinn…_Quinn…" _He repeated the name a couple of times…in many different tones. What the heck was wrong with this guy? I growled at him.

"We've met before."

"Have we?" He seemed intrigued by this statement. I blinked.

"Yeah, we've fought here before."

"Ah, but of course." Swain merely stated. He gave me a long look before continuing. "I thought that you were implying we've met outside of the league." I growled at him.

"What makes you think that?"

"Because I am quite sure we have. In fact," Swain grinned. "I believe I've met both of you."

I gave him a half-lidded stare. "Well, if you've met me you've met Valor. He and I are inseparable."

Swain laughed. "No, no. I wasn't talking about your little bird friend there. I was talking about something else." He paused as I stared at him, totally bewildered. "I was talking about the other you."

"What are you talking about?!"

"I've met the other you." He droned on, paying no attention to my interruption. "As a matter fact, he is my service, dutifully obeying any order I give him with immense pleasure. Said he's always wanted to be a knight. I helped make his dreams come true."

I started at the last bit. "What…?"

"Mentioned a Quinn quite often, he did." Swain continued lazily. "He would always go on about how he shared his dreams with her. How they were going to grow up together. How they were going to become knights together. How a tragic accident stopped that from ever happening. How he wonders whether she's still alive. "

I gaped stupidly at him. Valor flew over to me and tried to peck me out of it, but for once I couldn't pay attention to him.

"Yes, you know him, do you not? Is it all coming back? Do you know who I am referring to?"

"…Y-You can't possibly mean…"

"I do. I've met him, Quinn. I see him all the time. He is one of the most promising knights I have. And I say with every ounce of meaning I have in my body when I say that I have indeed met…"

He strolled up leisurely to the place I stood in shock. Valor, sensing danger, let out one final warning squawk and flew off. Swain walked up to me and leaned in until his mouth was right at my ear. And all I could do was stand there, paralyzed with dread and…something else…as I waited with baited breath for Swain's next three words.

"…Your brother, Caleb."

Then he turned into a raven and everything went black.

**So what do you think? Is it any good? Nah...I KNOW it's good. Just...how good is it? Very good? Okay good? It sucks good? I would appreciate it if you told me just how good it is, by writing something in that box at the bottom of the page. Should I continue this? Cause' I don't know.**


	2. Failing to Fight

**So I'm back. After the last chapter, I got a total of one review. To that one reviewer, thank you, I appreciate it. To the rest of you...here is my sad face :(**

**Come on there was like a 137 of you...o-or something...checked the traffic graph.**

**Not that I care or anything...**

**But since I'm a nice person, I decided to continue with this story anyway. And I also wanted to try something different. So this chapter isn't as dialogue-y as the last one.**

**Oh I also changed both the title and the description because in my mind, they both were kinda...bad.**

**So enjoy reading it and stuff. In case you were wondering, I don't own the LoL.**

I remember the rest of the battle didn't go so well.

When I respawned the only thing I could think of where Swain's words, I just couldn't get them out of my head. If there was the slightest chance my brother…what I mean is if Swain knew anything about my brother, I was determined to find out.

So, I went back out to do the only thing that made sense. I confronted Swain. Over and over again, I tried to ask about my brother. Over and over again, he didn't let me finish. Over and over again, I woke up at the Nexus, and went out to try again.

Before I knew it, our Nexus exploded and we lost the game. After the battle, our summoners met after the battle. They were really getting on the case of mine for "feeding", whatever that meant. My summoner acted defensive and blamed it all on something called a "lag". Again, I don't know what that meant. But from what I heard in that conversation, I think it's some kind of dessert.

It only occurred to me later that night that Swain might have said that just to get in my head. He is, after all, a master tactician. In fact, that seemed the most logical. I don't even know why I believed him; he's a Noxian, and Noxians do whatever they have to do to win.

So it was the rest of the night I spent awake, trying to convince myself that Swain was full of it, trying to convince myself to just drop what he said. My brother _can't _be alive (_Or could he?), _I _saw _him die (_Or did I?), _Swain _always _lies. (_Or does he?), _I _need _to get some sleep (_Or did I? Actually wait, no, I do)._

No matter what I did though, I couldn't get to sleep. I tried every trick I knew of, I even asked Valor to sing me a lullaby (Which he did after quite a bit of protest) nothing worked. It was so frustrating and it was all Swain's fault.

The next morning I was a mess. I hadn't gotten any sleep because I spent all night thinking about, well, everything. Beside me Valor looked just as bad. I had kept him awake too.

I looked so bad that when I went to get breakfast, a couple other champions, stopped to ask if everything was okay. Garen asked why I seemed so bothered last battle. Sona strummed a note of concern. Jarvan said something and then yelled "Demacia!" Actually now that I think about it, I don't think Jarvan was asking if I was okay. But he must have said that bit because he saw how terrible I looked and wanted to cheer me up. But it really didn't do that much.

It was time for battles. There are a millions of summoners out there and every champion is always in high demand, so of course I was called immediately. I looked up my match. It was another Summoner's rift match, although this time it was a blind pick. I smiled, maybe I would be able to focus on the battle and forget about this whole thing. As long as Swain wasn't there So I went out with renewed energy and eagerly I stepped in the portal to the Nexus. As I was going, the identity of my teammates and opponents were revealed. Swain wasn't on either of them.

Without Swain, I was able to focus specifically on the battle and our team was winning. I was in the bottom lane this time, teamed up with Twisted Fate and we were up against Rammus and Master Yi. We were winning too. I had killed Rammus twice and Yi once and I've only died once. Beside me Twisted Fate has killed Yi once, and hasn't died. I could clearly sense the frustration from our opponents as we got stronger, and they were pushed back.

After forcing them to retreat _again, _TF and I destroyed their outer turret and pushed on to the inner one. However Rammus and Yi didn't show up to stop us. TF signaled that enemies were missing and we kept steadily attacking the turret, although a bit uneasily. Suddenly we heard mid signal for help, as both Rammus and Yi appeared there with the opponent's original mid Velgar, river ganking our teammate, Xerath. TF and I left the turret to the minions and rushed into help, but before we got there Xerath had already fallen to the triple team and they were pushing to our turret.

We arrived just in time to see the three champions and a ton of their minions attacking our turret. At the same time one of our top laners, Shyvana, who I hadn't even noticed at this point, also signaled that enemies were missing and signaled that they were on the way to help us. Our last team member was at our Nexus, Shen, and he did the same.

Fate led the counter attack by throwing a card that hit all the enemy champions, and they hurriedly backed away from the turret. Rammus, however, turned on his ultimate and kept slugging away at our low health turret. He put his defenses up as the turret finished the last of the minions and focused on him. It only got off two shots before Rammus destroyed it completely. But Rammus had quite a bit of health taken off. Rammus then turned around and saw TF and I, with Shyvana arriving just in time to join us. Rammus's face was expressionless as we completely annihilated him. The tremors he created were a bit of a problem, but we took him out without losing too much health. The three of turned around to face our opponents who now had lost a member. Velgar and Yi were outnumbered so we decided to push the fight to them. Predictable they retreated. We pushed on ahead, almost to the river, when suddenly our bodies were snared with painful thorns, and a few plants started to whip us. Our opponents smiled as the numbers game was again even. And they were fully healed while we were not.

In my rush to get into battle I didn't even realize who we were up against. I only saw Swain wasn't on either team. I knew our team was Shen, Xerath, Twisted Fate, Shyvana, and me, and now I knew that the enemy team had Master Yi, Rammus, Velgar, and now the newcomer Zyra. But I quickly did the math in my head and figured out one was missing. I decided not to worry about that right now as my team needed me if they were to win this 3 v. 3 situation.

Our team moved first. Shyvana let lose a fire ball and I set Valor to try to blind then. When Valor had returned I saw he had marked Master Yi, and I quickly let loose a arrow at Yi, causing him to recoil a bit from the damage. Fate let out a barrage of cards, and then quickly ran out to the right into the fog of war, presumably to try and river gank them. Our opponents reacted quickly. Velgar sent some dark matter at us and Yi turned on his highlander skills and Wuju style and started to Alpha strike us over and over again, lowering our health by a ton. Shyvana, in response, used one of her summoner spells, heal. We were back in business. Suddenly a large crunch was heard by the river brushes and we all turned to see Twisted Fate frozen in spot, card in hand poised to throw, and a crushed plant at his feet. Realizing he had stepped into another Zyra trap he tried to back away, but Velgar reacted immediately and put a ring around Fate, stunning him as he tried to leave. Velgar then unleashed his Primordial burst absolutely crippling Fate. But just as he was about to auto attack him to death Shen finally appeared at TF location, giving him a shield and then proceeded to use his feint ability to create a shield around himself. TF recovered from his stun and joined Shen by throwing a gold card at Velgar, stunning him as Shen started to pick him off.

Noticing that Velgar may need some help, the rest of the opposing team went to help but was interrupted by Shyvana turning into a dragon and rushing at the in a wall of flame. She stood between them and Velgar, growling, daring them to try and pass her. The opposing team took one good look at her and backed away to their outer turret.

Realizing he was getting no aid, Velgar cursed and decided that he was bringing the low health TF with him. He flashed behind Shen and ended up in front of TF. With the last moments of his life, he got off one more attack, sent out a baleful strike at Shen, and used Ignite on Fate. Fate, knowing he was bested, simply lowered his hat over his eyes as ignite consumed the last of his life force, and he fell to the ground, dying for the first time this match.

Thinking the battle was over, we started to retreat, but just as we had returned to the remains of our outer turret, Yi came at us, somehow with amazing speed and nearly full health (Shyvana had damaged him quite a bit with her Burnout) And did another Alpha Strike on us. Refusing to be bested, Shen turned around and started to engage. He signaled for the rest of us to help and Shyvana, who had lost her dragon form, went to Yi and struck a Twin Bite. Seeing as he was the only enemy there he was the only one Valor targeted, and so I struck him with a arrow. By this time, our minions had made it to where we were, while his were still making their way over. They also started to engage on the solitary Yi. But that was the thing…he was the only tone there. Which surely must mean…?

Sure enough a huge field of thickets suddenly appeared where the three of us and the minions were, and ALL of us were launched up in the air. Yi must have turned on Wuju style again because he was able to launch yet another Alpha strike and finish off the rest of our minions immediately. Zyra was also more healed then she was before, although not as much as Yi, possibly due to summoner spells. Knowing this was a lost cause, Shen signaled us to fall back. And we made a run for it.

Shyvana, being the closest to Yi and lowest on health put up a barrier, while Shen flashed to my location. However Zyra also flashed to Shyvana and snared her with vines. Trying to save her, I vaulted in, attempting to slow down Yi, but it was a hopeless cause, As Yi was set to use yet another Alpha strike and Zyra put down buds in Shyvana's location. Zyra then used a deadly bloom on them, turning them into thorn spitters, and that combined with the Alpha strike took out Shyvana and put me below a quarter health. Now it was my turn to run.

Yi was still fast, and I was quite a distance from the inner turret. I flashed away from him as he caught up to me, but even with the added distance, with Yi's speed I knew I wasn't going to make it. I saw Shen up ahead, at least he was safe…what was he doing?

He was running… toward me. Out of safety and into the danger. His stupid protector side! Now we were both going to die.

Shen got to me fast enough. Ninjas are fast after all. But Yi had caught up to me…I braced myself for the inevitable hit when I felt a breeze by me and suddenly Shen was in front of me. He threw a Vorpal Blade at them and then started to attack. I blinked in confusion as I watched Shen try to take both Yi and Zyra on with his regular attacks and ki-strikes. Suddenly, I snapped out of it. There was no way he was going to win. He had no skills left. But I still had one. I still had my one skill that could change the outcome. I had my…

"Valor, to me!"

With one swift motion Valor swooped down and I jumped on top. This was it. This is what it comes down to. Valor and I were one and now…now we will show them our true power.

Seeing Shen struggling to win an auto-attack battle against Yi I commanded Valor to go straight for Yi. Valor's blinding assault led Yi to start missing his attacks and now Shen had the upper hand. Yi attempted an Alpha strike but Valor and I were already out of there and focusing on Zyra. Zyra shot seeds at us, trying to knock us down, but we were swift enough that not many hit us. Using Valor heightened senses, we quickly found Zyra's weak points and stuck it again and again. As she cringed in pain and shot seed wildly around her. It wasn't even a contest Valor was completely destroying the plant women.

While Valor continued to decimate Zyra, I turned around to find out if Shen was alright. He wasn't. Yi had recovered from Valor's attack and had gotten the upper hand again. Yi was low, but Shen was two hits from being finished. I turned back to Zyra. The plant woman was fading fast. One more well placed hit…I knew what I had to do.

Valor knew too. We were always in perfect sync. One light tap and he flew straight up at the speed of a bullet. Zyra looked up just in time to see me jump off with a rain of arrows. With nowhere to run, she simply let out a scream of defeat and keeled over. Meanwhile, both Shen and Yi were simultaneously about to let out a final attack, when my arrows hit Yi. It damaged him greatly and caused him to flinch in surprise for a split-second. That split-second was all it took for Shen to attack first and wouldn't you know it, it was a ki-strike. Yi fell down, defeated, as both Shen and I turned our attention to Zyra, who had turned into a giant plant. With a nod to each other, Shen and I both used our last summoner skill, barrier, as Plant-Zyra shot a giant thorn at incredible speed at us. Luckily for the both of us, our barrier managed to protect us and we both barely survived.

A few seconds passed as Shen and I both took in what just went down. Following all the commotion the battle caused, the silence was a little eerie. Shen decided to break that silence.

"That was clo-"

Shen abruptly stopped when Valor appeared on him. He left a mark and flew into the brush near our turret. I glared at the brush.

"Valor, he's on our tea-"I was interrupted as Valor landed on my shoulder, and cocked his head to the side, staring at the brush as well. How in the world was he here? I just saw him fly into the brush. I didn't see him fly out. So, how did he end up on my shoulder…?

"Eyes in the sky." I commanded Valor, and Valor took off. He circled around the brush and chirped a warning cry. There was someone there. With a start I realized that we had only taken 4 enemies out. Which means that the last one was in-

I turned to warn Shen, but before I could do so an arrow hit him directly in the head. He let out a yell of surprise, and fell to the ground. That arrow…that was my arrow! Someone used my own arrows to take out my team! I was NOT going to let that happen. Despite the little amount of energy I had left and sauntered toward the brush, to give whoever it was a piece of my mind. I noticed Valor flying straight toward me. I held out my arm so he could land. But instead of landing, he put a mark on me and flew off back into the brush. Then Valor came out of the sky and landed on my arm….what…?

I gasped as my assailant stepped out of the brush. It was…me. I was fighting myself. Except it was another me. _The other me._ I dropped my crossbow in shock as the other me lifted it up without hesitation. The last thing I saw was an arrow flying straight at my face.

"…**Ace…"**

The rest of the battle didn't go so well. I couldn't stop thinking of, well…myself. I didn't even dare to leave the Nexus after that, I just stayed at the base, not moving, only thinking. I didn't want to risk meeting myself again. Why that shook me up so much…even I don't know. I have heard stories from champions who have fought themselves in a blind pick match before. Apparently the league has some kind of cloning device so if two summoners on opposite teams want to play the same champion it allows them to do so, by creating a perfect simulation of said champion that acts exactly like the real thing. It got confusing so I didn't really listen to it all that much. But I never would have thought…just the look in her…I-I mean my eye when, She- er, I shot that arrow. Did I really look like that?

After the battle (I think we lost, but I wasn't paying attention), I went to the league headquarters. There was no way I could fight anymore today. The League wasn't happy about it, but they complied. I went back to my room and sat down on my bed. Valor gave me a look of concern and anxiously flew around. I had no idea what I was going to do now. I just knew I couldn't fight anymore. I pondered over what I was going to do. With the day now clear of fighting, I was free to do anything I wanted. But what did I want to do? My mind was blank. There was nothing. The league was my life now. There was nothing I could do now, nothing except-

"Valor." I called out my best friend, my closest companion. He chirped in reply. "We're going."

Valor flew down and landed on my lap. He looked up at me inquiringly. I took a deep breath.

"To the place I first met you." The bird's expression suddenly changed to one of understanding, and I paused before continuing. "We're visiting Caleb's grave."

**Yes, so what will happen there? Hmm? That's exciting. But how was that action scene up there? Wanted to try that. How about that? Was it good? Nah...I KNOW it's...wait...I used that before...um...**

**So maybe I wasn't specific enough. *ahem* I would greatly appreciate it if you typed your feelings about this story in that BIG box down there with the word, "type your review here" and then click "post review as _" So I can figure out what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong and how I can improve it. I would also like to know if I should continue this story, because I think it's good, but I don't know if anyone else think it's good. Maybe I'm just egotistical. **

**So that would be helpful, thanks. But you don't have too. I'm not going to be upset or anything. If you don't I'm definitely not going to check the traffic graph and chew out the ones who didn't review in the next chapter. I mean, what kind of person does that?**

**Have a good day. Because good days are good to have. **


	3. A Grave Visit

**Hey. I'm sure you want to read the story thing, right?**

**But I'll use this space here to create a little background of how this story was created, and a little warning. That's right I'm putting this in chapter three. The most logical place to put it, right?**

**Here's the warning right off the bat: I'm new to League of Legends. I've only started playing about two weeks ago. So that means I might mess some facts up. So if I do that, be sure to let me know.**

**As for the story's origins, here's what happened: One reason I started playing LoL was because I wanted to play as Anivia. Because, I'm a Pokémon fan and my favorite Pokémon is Articuno. But being the noob I was, I didn't have the Influence Points to unlock her. So I ended up playing as other champions in the free rotation week to get some. Last week I discovered I was starting to get good at some champions and then they changed it. So I circled through Caitlyn, Gangplank, Jarvan, and Xerath, before finally realizing the most fun I had playing was, you guessed it, Quinn. **

**As such, I looked up her abilities. Then realized there was the thing called lore, which I never knew about, and read that too. The story she had felt kind of vague, as it never actually explained what happened to her brother. So I decided, hey, why not write a story about it? So I opened up Word and wrote this impromptu story and decided to let other people judge how good it was.**

**Oh, and by the way, I did finally unlock Anivia. I kinda suck at her though….**

**Without further ado, let's get this chapter actually rolling. I don't own any LoL things.**

We arrived here sometime between the afternoon and evening. Just being here made so many memories come up. This was the place I both lost everything and found everything. This was where I lost Caleb. This is where I found Valor.

I went up to the small, solitary tombstone that marked where Caleb lay. Valor, bless him, realized the significance of this moment and flew off to give us some space. I crouched down by the grave and slowly read the words on the tombstone.

"HERE LIES CALEB. R.I.P"

That's all it said. My family decided it was too painful trying to come up with longer stories. He was so young…

"Hey Caleb. It's me. Quinn." I spoke quietly to the grave. I looked up. I noticed Valor, perched on a branch in front of me, cocking his head to the side and regarding me in silence. These woods were always so quiet. In some woods, you would hear birds chirping, animals talking, water flowing. But here, all there was deafening silence. I turned back to Caleb.

"Hey, I brought you something."

I had brought a flower with me. I didn't know what kind it was, or really anything about it, but I dropped it on his grave any way. Knowing Caleb, I knew he wouldn't care much for a flower. But it was the best I could do. I took a deep breath.

"I'm sure you want to hear of my matches?" I asked him. As always, he responded with silence. "Well, to be honest I haven't been doing so well lately." I hesitated. "There's been…something…on my mind lately." I paused, wondering what I was going to say. "…A Noxian said something about you…"

I stopped and took time to think of what Caleb's response would have been. It didn't take long. Caleb hated Noxians, he would surely scoff at that and tell me he didn't care what they said. He would then propose that we sneak into Noxus and launch a super destructive attack that would wipe every Noxian of the face of the earth. Then we would do just that, except really, we would just play in these woods. But those were the old days…

It was always hard to talk to Caleb. It reminded me that if I had refused to go into the woods that day, If I had wanted to go home a little bit earlier, if I had stopped him from doing the thing that ended up costing his life…then, maybe, he'd still be here with me right now. Maybe, we would have become knights. Maybe we would have achieved the ultimate commoner's fairytale.

But instead I did nothing and simply watched my brother's life end right before my eyes. When his life ended, so did our dream. So did everything I ever worked for. I could not stop thinking that it was all my fault, that things ended up that way.

But then I met Valor. A year passed before I finally mustered up the courage to see my brother, to tell him how sorry I was, to beg for forgiveness. But to my surprise, there was a injured fledgling lying directly on his grave. I couldn't just stand there as yet another life was ending before me. I took it in and did everything I could to nurse it back to health.

He was scared of me at first. I remember the first thing he did when he opened up his eyes and saw me; he flapped his wings panic and fell right out of the nest I built him. It took a while to gain his trust. But when he did we became good friends. Somehow, I began to understand what he was saying. Valor and I became closer and closer as we spent more time together. Slowly, I started to laugh again. I remembered what it was like to feel happy. I learned to live again.

But then tragedy struck again, except this time, it wasn't really a tragedy. Valor became perfectly healthy. Despite my constant protests, my parents insisted I let him go, they said it wasn't right to keep such a beautiful bird out of its natural habitat. So I went back to these woods, and with a final, teary good-bye, I set him free.

Or so I thought. On the way back, however, I was attacked. A creepy man jumped me from behind and threatened me with a crossbow, demanding I give him everything I have. However, as poor as I was, I had nothing on me at the time. He cursed and spat at me in frustration and demanded that I was to pleasure him other ways. At the time, I didn't know what that meant. I think I know now…

One thing I was sure of was that I was going die that day.

There was nothing I could do as he roughly shoved me to the concrete, and prepared to do whatever he was going to do to me, when suddenly I was saved. A blur of wind rushed by me as suddenly the man recoiled and covered his eyes, yelling in agony and dropping the crossbow. I blinked as I realized it was Valor, _my_ Valor, bravely coming to save me, risking his own life to help prolong mine. The man finally managed to bat Valor away, but not before Valor had placed a large target right at his head.

As the man glared up at Valor shaking his fist and sputtering curses, I looked at the crossbow that had fallen beside me, and then at the target on the man. I did the only thing that I felt I could. I picked the weapon and aimed it right as his head. He turned around just in time to see me with the crossbow, and a look of worry appeared on his face for moment before he relaxed and gave me a smug smile.

"_Stupid little girl, you can't use that, you're much too-"_

It was all he got off before a perfectly shot arrow sprouted from his head. That day was when I named Valor. That was the day I learned who I was. The day Valor and I became a team.

In present time, Valor flew over to me and landed on my shoulder, snapping me out of my flashback. He squawked something in my ear. I rolled my eyes.

"Come on, Valor , now's not the time.."

Valor insistently squawked, as if I really needed to hear this. I sighed, decided to play along with the nagging bird.

"…Who's there?"

"Valor practically yelled in excitement as he hopped around on my shoulder, just to tell me who was there. I blinked at him.

"Well, this is a new one. Brand who?"

Valor screamed the last part in my ear and then flew off behind me chirping up a storm. I frowned at what he said.

"Val, that doesn't even make sense. How is it a joke that Brand is right behind me-"

I stopped as I heard a low throaty laugh that most certainly did not come from Valor. Slowly, I turned around and I saw none other than the burning vengeance himself, with Valor still screaming up a storm and flying in circles ten feet above his head. The man on fire's empty eyes stared straight through me and his mouth curved up into a sinister looking smile.

"**Hello, Quinn**_._"


	4. The Burning Truth

…Let me introduce Brand.

This…former…man used to be a pirate. He was pretty much a Gangplank, which, is to say, he sailed around on oceans and stole stuff. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but one day he sailed to a frozen island or something and touched a fire. Then he got his body possessed and started to call himself Brand.

Now he's a lunatic who's locked up by the league and always raving about how he's going to end the world by setting everything on fire.

Or at least he should be locked up.

The fact that he's _here_ means that he's not locked up.

What the heck was he doing here?

"What the heck are you doing here?" I squeaked at him.

Brand simply leered at me, and I got the strange feeling that he was sizing me up, preparing to set me on fire. That was a very bad thing, because I happened to be in the woods, visiting my brother's grave. I don't bring my armor or crossbow when I'm visiting my brother's grave. And woods happen to have a lot of trees.

Brand finally spoke, in his raspy, deep voice "I was planning to set you on fire."

...Well, that wasn't good…

"Why would you want to do that?"

Brand shrugged nonchalantly and took a step toward me. Without the special battlefield turf the Fields of Justice provided, he left a molten trail of flames behind.

"You know how some say the world will end in fire?" He asked me casually. He didn't wait for me to respond before continuing. "Well, I am the one who will do just that. I am the fire that will cleanse the world!"

I stared at him. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Brand threw his head back and laughed, as if I just asked the stupidest question in the world. He kept laughing for a good minute before he peered at me and realized I wasn't laughing as well.

"You don't get it?" he questioned bemusedly. Wondering if it was a smart idea, I shook my head. Brand muttered under his breath. "Fine then, I will explain to you idiotic piece of flesh why I must kill you."

"Please do." I prodded him, ignoring the part where he called me an idiotic piece of flesh.

Now, why I was going to let him explain why he was going to kill me was very simple. During that time where he was explaining it, he wasn't going to kill me. Ingenious, right?

I gave a signal to Valor and he immediately rushed off to find help. The plan was I had to stall Brand for as long as possible.

"Very well," Brand grunted. "I will tell you why I am to kill you post-haste."

I inwardly groaned. This was going to suck.

"As you know, I am to set the world on fire. There is to be no one stopping me from doing so, and if one tries to stop me I set them on fire. Let me repeat: No one can stop me. I am unstoppable. Understood?"

"Sure."

"However, it has been proved time and time again that I can be stopped. These pathetic league matches have taught me one thing and it is this: I. Can. Die. That means I can be stopped. But I can't be stopped because I am unstoppable. Yet I have been stopped. So I ask you this, Quinn: How is it that I can be stopped when I can't be stopped?

I didn't know how to respond to that. "Uh…"

Brand seemed satisfied. "Exactly. So it is abundantly clear that if I am to remain unstoppable, I must eliminate the ones with the capability to stop me. So, therefore, I must terminate every league champion and every army if I am to accomplish my goal. Individually, if given the choice. Are you following me?"

I blinked. I was definitely not following any of what he was saying. I didn't expect Brand to talk like…well….that. Brand took my silence as a yes.

"Good. Now, I have managed to escape from the confinements of my cell…"

I snapped out of it. I had to stall him. "How did you escape?"

Brand shrugged. "Guard left the door open."

….That's it?!

Brand continued. "As I was saying, I escaped my cell and I needed to dispose of my potential threats. Unfortunately, since many league matches were going on at the time, most champions were grouped together which would cause unfavorable matchups were I to assault them. However, I managed to overhear one particular champion dropping her matches and going on a little break." Brand paused and pointed at me. "That champion would be you, Quinn."

Huh. No kidding.

"And so I followed you around, hoping that you would go vacation in a place which wouldn't cause too much commotion, and as luck would have it, you moved to the quietest place in Runeterra, not a soul to be found for miles. Allowing me to decimate you and continue my mission in stealth." A fireball appeared in his hand. "Now I will do that."

…Well, that was a stall fail.

Just as Brand was about to shoot his fireball, Valor arrived back in the nick of time and clawed at his eyes. Brand screeched in pain and sent his fireball in a random direction. It ended up hitting the ground to the left of me and then quickly started to spread. Valor flew over to it and frantically started flapping in place to try and put it out. Never underestimate the wingpower of a Demacian eagle.

"Val-" I started, but Valor immediately shook his head no. We were on our own.

Brand cursed under his breath and quickly shot another fireball, this time at Val. Valor dodged out of the way and flew to the place it landed to beat that out as well.

"Annoyingly speedy bird…"Brand muttered. "But no matter, I will not let this opportunity go to waste!"

Brand leaned back and brought both his arms behind his head. Then in a one swift motion, he brought his arms forward and pounded the ground. I recognized that move. "Valor-!"

Valor let out a cry of alarm and flew sideways as a giant pillar of flame burst out of the ground where he had just been a second ago. The pillar receded just as fast as it had come leaving a massive crater in the ground as a result.

Valor circled around and screeched at me, warning me to turn back around. I did and was greeted by a giant flaming fireball as opposed to the regular ones. This could only be Brand's Pyroclasm, his deadliest fire attack. Just as it was about to hit me I fell flat, hoping to duck under it, but it was way too large and it also seemed to be heat-seeking (despite the fact it was made of _fire__)_ and it did manage to graze me before bouncing right off me and continuing on. I didn't have time to worry about being on fire. That Pyroclasm was headed straight toward my brother's grave.

Seconds before it hit, Valor dove it front of it and took the whole brunt of the attack and saving my brother's grave. He immediately let out a shrill cry as the flame started to burn him. I lay there in shock for a good second before I realized what just happened.

"Valor, fly up!" I commended him desperately.

The flaming bird let out the same shrill cry of pain as he responded, shooting straight up, disappearing into the clouds. For that moment, I was more afraid then I had been in years. If Valor was too late, if I was too slow, if he didn't make it…"

Slowly, the form of a bird dropped down from the skies, not on fire, but not showing any signs of life either as it dropped faster and faster…

I got up and ran underneath it, right next to Caleb's grave. I saw Valor drop straight down, not even attempting to fly. I held out my arms, and he landed with a not so soft thump in my arms.

"Valor…"

The eagle, my closest friend lay right there in my arms, not moving for what seemed like an eternity and I remembered what it was like to hold a still body in my arms. How ironic, how cruel it was to have him go like this, right next to my brother, the place where I lost him as well, right on top the spot where he was buried! What kind of-

Valor opened his eyes.

Valor wasn't dead! Valor pulled through!

I couldn't contain myself as I gave him a hug and he let out a squawk of surprise, expressing all the joy I felt at that moment, the-

Valor bit me.

"Geez, Val." I choked out, letting go of him. "Sorry that I was _worried-" _

Valor slapped me in the face with his wing and bobbed his head behind me, still squawking in surprise….actually now that I've cleared my head, it kinda sounded like a warning cry…

…

…I forgot about Brand.

I whirled around with Valor still squawking in my arms just in time to see Brand hit the ground with his arms again.

That only meant one thing.

…Right on top of Caleb's grave too.

I had no choice. Right as I felt the ground below start to loosen, I vaulted off, tumbling to my left, making sure to land on my back so I didn't crush Valor. Quickly as I could I got up to inspect the damage.

Where my brother's grave was, where he was buried, there was now a giant hole there. Brand had freaking destroyed my brother's grave. The tombstone had fallen in and all that was left of it was a pebble, a tiny pebble, teetering at the edge of the hole. Brand had destroyed the only thing I had left of him.

Of all the times I don't bring my stupid crossbow.

I didn't care if I didn't have any weapons though. I didn't care that I wasn't wearing armor. I didn't care Brand had almost burned me into a crisp earlier. Because he took him away from me and I deserved to die if I didn't get him back for it.

As I was advancing toward him, a sick, placid grin on his hideous face, Valor twitched around, obviously as distraught as I am. He nearly died protecting that grave and with one simple attack Brand made it all for nothing. Valor squirmed out of my grasp and flew to attack Brand.

But he didn't fly toward Brand. Instead Valor flew straight up (in a very painful fashion, that Pyroclasm really took a toll on him) and let out the loudest yell I've ever heard from him. I looked at him in confusion as he slowly descended perching on my shoulder.

"Val…?"

Brand yelled in anger. "Gah! That annoying bird! I will end you both!" He conjured up another fireball and aimed it straight at us. "Get ready to die you sons of-"

He never finished. A golden heart came out from the trees and hit him straight in the face. Yes, a heart. Not an actual heart of course. A heart that can only be found from-

Ahri stepped out of the trees and addressed us. "Are you okay?"

I gaped at her. "Where did you come form?!"

Ahri huffed. "I'm doing just fine, thank you very much. I hope I was of some _use _here."

I cleared my throat. "Okay, I'm going to try this again. How are you? Where did you come from?"

Ahri turned her nose in the air indignity, "I _suppose_ that's better. Hmph. The league postponed their matches because some idiot guard let Brand free. He got fired of course." She giggled. "You should of seen it! It was hilarious, he nearly cried!"

I groaned. "Again, I ask-Where did you come from?"

Ahri peered at me. "Not distracted, huh? Okay, I'll tell you. The champions were sent all across Runeterra to try and track down Brand. I got the river not too far from here. I don't know why the league thought a man _on fire _would be near a river of all places, but wouldn't you know it, he was here after all. Guess it goes to show... "

I stopped paying attention at the word river. The river? There wasn't a river near here…

"Sorry Ahri," I interrupted her. "But did you say 'river'?"

Ahri frowned at me. "I'm pretty sure I did. You may want to check you hearing. The Serpentine river, just north of here."

"The Serpentine River?!" I exclaimed. "That's like a hundred miles north of here! Are you sure you came from all the way over there?"

Ahri shrugged. "I am a fox. To a fox a hundred miles isn't that far. Especially, if they can spirit rush. And Especially," She emphasized her next words very pointedly. "If they get a reward for going that far."

I sighed "I don't have a reward for you."

"Aww…"

"…Although thanks for saving my life."

"Yay, gratitude!" Suddenly, Ahri started prancing around again, clearly excited for some reason. "Gratitude is the best reward! I think…" She glanced at me. "Gratitude is a reward, right?"

I blinked. "Uh…sure."

"Yay!" Ahri skipped around, pleased with herself. "I feel appreciated! Ooh I love these human feelings!"

"I can make you feel appreciated!" Brand practically yelled at her, turning both our attentions back to him.

"Oh…don't worry, you'll have your turn…"Ahri lowered her voice sweetly.

"Yay!" Brand started skipping around. "Fox-babies! Fox-babies!"

Ahri turned to see me giving her a disbelieving look.

"Shouldn't your charm have worn out by now?"

"Normally. But I put all the mana I had into that one- hence why it was gold instead of pink." She giggled. "I made sure it was extra potent so it wouldn't wear out easily."

Behind her Brand continued it…VERY graphic detail about how he was going to have fox-babies.

"Don't worry, I'm not actually going to do it." Ahri assured me.

"Oh good…"

"He's made of fire. That looks like it could hurt."

"…Really, that's your reason?"

Ahri simply smiled an innocent smile at me. I sighed before continuing.

"Okay, if you were really in the Serpentine River nowhere near here. How did you know we were here?"

Ahri grinned. "Simple, I heard him," she pointed at Valor.

"How-"

"I am a fox. Foxes have good hearing."

I sighed exasperated. I knew foxes had good hearing but there was absolutely no way that Ahri could have heard Valor from that far away. But I decided not to push it. It was like arguing against a stone. Speaking of stone…

I turned sadly to face the ruined remains of what was once my brother's stone. Ahri followed my gaze and spoke up.

"Ouch. He did a lot of damage didn't he?"

I didn't speak. I simply walked up to the giant hole and looked down into it wondering if I could ever fill the other hole Brand left in my heart.

Ahri followed me up to it. "Was this spot special to you?"

I nodded at her. "This was the place my brother was buried."

Ahri bobbed her head up and down eager, to learn more about human nature. "Why was he buried?"

I sighed at the naïve fox. "Because he died, Ahri."

Ahri nodded again, and I could literally hear the gears in her head spinning. "Why didn't he respawn?"

I felt a pang in my chest at those words. If only life were like a league battle. If only, death wasn't the end of the line. I nearly started to choke up there, but I kept my cool, for the sake of Ahri.

"You can't respawn from this kind of death."

Ahri's smile slowly faded and she frowned. "So..it's like when the solder went to sleep and didn't wake up?"

"Exactly."

"Oh."

Ahri and I stood there for a moment in silence before she spoke up again.

"As a fox, I was taught when family members and friends die it's best to forget about them, to focus on the next hunt. But as a human…" She glanced at me for confirmation. I didn't move a muscle. "…it's best to remember the times you had with them, to keep the close and dear to your heart. To always mourn your losses…to feel sympathy for other's losses…"

I remained still and silent.

Ahri bowed her head. "I'm sorry, Quinn…"

Behind us Brand had been keeping his rant going this entire time, staring at Ahri with a bit of fire drool coming out of his mouth. But when Ahri bowed her head, Brand trotted up to her with a bit of a confused look on his face.

"Foxy-lady….sad…?"

Ahri snapped up and whirled around to face Brand.

"Yes, I'm sad, you dolt! You destroyed something very important to Quinn and you don't even care! This was the place she remembers her brother and you took that away from her you inconsiderate jerk! Now she has nothing to but the memories in her heart to hold onto, and we are both very sad for that! In fact, I'm so sad I could drown you with my tears!"

Brand took a step back in surprise. He frowned at the giant hole and walked over to grab the small pebble that was once a part of the tombstone and held it out to me.

Then he dropped it down the hole.

"Deep hole!" he chanted cheerfully. "Deep hole, deep hole!"

That was the last straw. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!" I yelled at him. "That was all that I had left of Caleb and you just toss it aside like a piece of garbage! AND THAT'S SUPPOSED TO MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER?!"

Ahri quickly backed me up "Yeah, how dare you-wait," she faced me. "Who's Caleb?"

I stared at her. How did she not put together the pieces? "Caleb's my bro-"

At that moment I realized something. I have never told anyone the story of my brother, let alone speak my brother's name. No one should know anything about this story, because there are some things you never speak of, some things you keep close to your heart and only to yourself. This is one of those things. But then…But then how is it that someone who I have never spoke to on a personal level, someone who I would never talk to in a million years, someone who doesn't even live in Demacia know this story? How did Jericho Swain, of all people, know my brother's _name?_

"Ahri?" I turned toward the fox. "Can foxes burrow?"

Ahri glanced at me, puzzled. "Well, yeah-"

"Can you do me a favor and check out that hole?"

Ahri checked my expression for signs of a joke. "Are you sure?" I took a deep breath and nodded. "O-okay then…"

Ahri started to dig the ground next to Caleb's tomb, and it wasn't long before she dug out of sight. 10-15 minutes passed and still Brand and I stood awkwardly awaiting Ahri's report. Surely it didn't take this long to bury him here…

"Wow this is a deep hole!" Ahri's voice was faint and sounded very distant from inside the ground. "Is this how humans send off their dead? Fancy!"

Fancy? We were poor...

"What's so fancy, about it, Ahri?" I yelled down into the hole.

"Well, it's really something!" I heard her reply. "There's a ton of room, almost wide enough for three of me! And there's a bunch of shovels and stuff lying around! There are also columns to keep the ceiling from caving in!"

…Okay, something was off. We did not put columns in Caleb's grave.

"What else?" I called to her.

"Well it's very long. Ooh, there's a path leading deeper into the woods. Oh, wow, it's like a tunnel!"

A tunnel in my brother's grave. Holy hell.

"Deep hole." Brand repeated solemnly.

Ahri popped out of the ground in front of me. "Quinn…?"

…I needed to find Swain.

**No I didn't forget the bold font A/N thing. I just decided to put it at the end for a change of pace. Um..gee chapter 4 huh? This chapter was actually kind of hard to write because I randomly decided to put Brand in the last chapter. So I was trying to think of a way that would make sense and after 10 minutes of staring at a blank Microsoft Word document it finally came to me. Hooray.**

**Thanks to you for reading this far. I know that my writing may not be the best in the world, but it means a lot that you tolerated it for four chapters. Means it can't be too bad either.**

**As always, if you got advice or something, I'll always appreciate that. **

**And the disclaimer: I don't own anything except Valor, my imaginary pet Demacian Eagle. Oh wait, no he belongs to my imaginary friend Quinn. Oh and wouldn't you know it, Quinn belongs to Riot. Guess Riot owns my imagination now too.**

**Cya.**


	5. Finding Swain

On the way back I did nothing but question Ahri on what she saw in my brother's grave. So apparently, there was a deep tunnel leading to who knows where, random columns of dirt scattered everywhere, dark- but not to dark for a fox, and most importantly: there wasn't a body or any sign of one.

Ahri herself seemed to think that's how all graves were like. Her naivety really showed at times like these. She went on to claim that if graves were like this, she'd have no problem becoming a better gravedigger than Yorick, to which I responded to by not responding. When eventually the league came to pick Brand up, she disappeared back in the forest for few seconds to practice digging before reappearing with a big smile as if she figured something out. I did my best on the way back to convince her that grave digging wasn't a smart career choice.

Ahri's charm lasted on Brand for quite a while before they came. They offered him a choice: Either they would kill him or give him the worst possible punishment they could think of. Brand, of course, chose the punishment. The League decided that they would put him in a small, very cramped cell and had Nami and Fizz shoot powerful bursts of water at him. They did this for about a good hour and from what I heard, Brand won't be trying another stunt like that for a while.

Most importantly, however, Valor needed medical attention. It was obvious Brand hurt him extremely badly. He couldn't even fly for more than a few seconds. I carried him to the League's doctor; he had his head bowed in such a feeble matter that it just didn't feel right. Here was this proud and noble bird, reduced to a meek helpless shadow of himself. Even Ahri, barely knowing what she was feeling, felt some obligation to try to help and followed us to the doctor. When we arrived though, he wasn't, shall we say-cooperative.

"Look, he's hurt, yes, but I am not allowed to treat anyone who isn't a champion."

"Valor _is _a champion, sir, he's my partner."

"Miss. I have the list right here. There is no _Valor _on this list. I wish I could help you, but I am under strict orders to not help anyone who isn't a champion. The league will severely punish me for this."

I yelled in anger. "What kind of messed up system is this?"

The doctor sighed in exasperation, as if he had a talk like this often. "I don't make the rules miss."

"Look I'm a champion. Can't you help him under my name? I'm Quinn…you know, the one who has a bird named _Valor _in battle?"

The doctor studied me. "You do look like her…but even so, I would have to see identity, and once I've confirmed that you are the champion Quinn, I've only got license to treat you and only you. Meaning I can't help your bird." He paused for a second. "I'm sorry miss."

I looked at the floor. If Valor was going to die simply because the league doctors refused to help…

"That's really unfair…"

The doctor let out another sigh, though this time it sounded remorseful. "I'm really sorry, miss. But if you truly are a champion, then you must be pretty rich. You can always go find another doctor or vet." He gave me an apologetic look as he closed the door.

But that's the thing. I wasn't "pretty rich". The league didn't actually pay their champions. Instead, they gave them a sanctuary, a place to live, a second home, or (in the case of guys like Brand), a life. They offered services, like meals, baths, training rooms, and things that are so luxurious I don't even know what they are.

What the doctor meant by assuming I was rich wasn't meant to be an insult. He knew how the league paid its employees as he too was one. But, it was true that if you were a champion you were most likely rich. The league usually found the most popular fighters from all over Runeterra, and popular people tend to be rich. Whether it was because they were royalty or other reasons, champions of the league of legends tended to be rich.

I was born a peasant, though. I grew up in the poor part of Demacia, trying to get by on however many jobs my family took that week. Although as I grew up, I did get some jobs of my own and even became a ranger for the Demacian army, most of what I earned went to my family, to improve them from horrendous living conditions to mediocre living conditions.

I did have some spare money, but not nearly enough for a doctor. The league had been my only hope. I turned to Ahri and weakly muttered, "Can foxes heal Demacian Eagles..?"

Ahri gave me a look that told me she didn't know if I was joking or not. Frankly, I didn't know either. Why would I joke at a time like this?

"No."

I already knew the answer. I sighed and looked at Valor. He had looked absolutely torn when the doctor refused to treat him, but as I faced him, he put on his brave face, clearly not wanting to show any weakness.

"I do…maybe…know a doctor." Ahri spoke up hesitantly. I looked back at her. "The league has plenty of champions with healing abilities…"

I let that sink in. Of course! How could I forget? There were plenty of champions that would definitely be willingly to help. I can't believe I didn't think of that sooner.

"Yeah, you're right!" I responded. "We got to find Sona or Soraka right now!" And I hurried off to find them.

Ahri frowned behind me. "Sona or Soraka are doctors? I was thinking Dr. Mundo…."

I found Sona exactly where I thought she'd be- the league's concert hall, practicing notes on that etwahl of hers.

"Sona!" I called to her.

She looked up in surprise as she stopped playing and regarded me. She strummed a note.

"Yeah, hi. " I told her, not exactly knowing if she was actually greeting me or not. "Look, I need a big favor, I need to ask of you, do you think you could help?"

Sona simply stared at me, waiting for me to continue.

"My bird Valor." I brought out Valor, who had since the rush over here looked even frailer. "He's hurt pretty bad. Do you-" I took a deep breath, trying to calm down a bit. "Can you please help him?"

Sona turned her attention to Valor and tilted her head in thought. Then she raised he etwahl and started to play a soothing melody that put my heart at ease. The song was so beautiful and harmonious it sounded like an angel had made an appearance in that very hall. The whole room seemed to get lighter, and more colorful, although that may have been my imagination. Without even realizing it, I had started to sway to the music.

I took a peek at Valor. The music had taken some kind of positive effect on him as he perked up his head. Slowly, he lifted off my shoulder and flew up toward the ceiling and did a few circles. Then he started to sing along, quietly at first, but as time went on he got louder and more confident. His pitch matched the song as he hit the notes perfectly, and in that moment, somehow, I knew everything was going to be all right with him. As Sona finished her song Valor flew back down to me and perched back on my shoulder, looking more vigorous then I've ever seen him, all signs of Brand's attack gone, and seemingly back to his normal self.

Just as I was about to thank Sona though she played a different note on her instrument, this time a low and foreboding sounding one. She glared at me menacingly and signaled something that I didn't know what it was supposed to mean.

"Sona?" I inquired.

Again she played the same dread inspiring note and gave me a very pointed look, franticly signaling me something with her hands.

"I don't get it." I told her.

Sona seemed read y to snap, which was weird because Sona wasn't the type to ever snap. Again, she played the foreboding note and signaled something with her hands. I shook my head, still not knowing what she was trying to say.

Sona sighed, or at least I think she did, and she walked over to me and pointed at my shoulder.

"Valor?" I asked her. She nodded. Then she walked back to the stage and picked up her etwahl and played a very slow and soft melody. It almost sounded like a-

"Lullaby?" Again Sona nodded, seeming pleased. Then she played a few more notes. The first was the same lullaby she had just played and she followed it up with a happy and carefree note, the one in her song that healed Valor that told me everything was going to be alright. She paused and gave me a very long and pointed stare before continuing. She played a few fast paste notes that reminded me of bullets and action in the field of justice, and then she paused again to point at Valor and finally finished with the same low foreboding note she had played before.

Sona then set down her etwahl and studied me, as if waiting for me to speak.

"Uh..That was a very nice piece Sona?"

Sona slapped her forehead in frustration and glared at me angrily like I was some sort of idiot. She walked up to me and swiped Valor of my shoulder, surprising the both of us. She then walked back up to the stage and lay Valor down on top of one of the stands musicians used. Before Valor had time to figure out what just happened, Sona grabbed a music sheet and draped it over Valor like a blanket, and then gave me a hard deadpan stare.

I didn't really know what to make of that, apart from the fact that she seemed intent on trying to lull Valor to sleep. If she wanted to help Valor sleep, then I guess what she was asking was…

"So you want to take care of Valor for a few days?" I asked

Sona immediately picked up her etwahl played a very hurried strong note which I assumed meant yes. I stopped to think about that. Valor usually didn't get along with strangers very well, but with Sona, I'm sure that she could find a way to get along with Valor through her music. Plus, although, Valor did look as good as new, he probably did need a little bit of rest from those traumatizing moments of being lit on fire. Valor was my responsibility, and although I would hate to be separated from him, Sona would actually be more likely to coax Valor to sleep then I would, since she's excels at playing lullabies. Plus, my next objective was to find Swain. Although Valor would be helpful for that, I didn't exactly _need_ him. I took a deep breath and convinced myself that it would be best for Valor and-

"…Okay, you can take care of him for a few days. But I'll need him back before next week."

Sona's jaw dropped in surprise. Obviously, she wasn't expecting me to consent so easily. Valor let out a sound of surprise as well and flew off the stand and straight at me squawking franticly. I stared at him.

"I know, Val, I know. But I'm only doing this for your sake. You need rest from that injury." Valor let out another sound of protest and pecked me on the nose. "Oh come on, Val, it won't be so bad. I'm sure you and Sona will get along fine."

Speaking of Sona she was still in some state of shock. She shook her head to try to snap out of it, but she really must have been shocked because she had to keep shaking her head. I chuckled at her. Of course it was understandable why she'd be so shocked. This was Valor after all.

"Okay Sona," I addressed the head-shaking maven of the strings. "Here's what you need to know about taking care of Valor…oh before I get into that, do you know where Swain is?" Sona glanced at me with a terrified look and played a very insistent note on her etwahl. "Oh, well, that's okay then, I'll just ask someone else…so anyway, you need to feed him…-

After I left them both in the concert hall, with Sona looking like she was going to faint from excitement, I focused on finding Swain. The league had tons of places where he could be, so I checked every single one of them. The Noxian dormitories, the planning room, the training rooms, the league offices, the mess hall, the dining room, the Demacian dormitories…you never know- he might be trying to spy.

But after hours of searching, I was getting nowhere, he was nowhere to be found and no one I asked knew where he was. Of all days to disappear of the face of Runeterra, he chose today.

After thoroughly searching the summoner's platform for a good hour I sat down, frustrated and fatigued. Where could Swain be?

Just as I was contemplating searching the men's bathroom for him, Tristana walked up to me with her rocket gun and sat down next to me.

"Hey, we've been looking all over for you!"

I snorted. "Funny. That's what I've been doing for the past five hours."

Tristana gave me a confused glance. "Uh…what?"

"Nothing. Forget I said anything."

"Geez Quinn, you're usually more fun than this. Something wrong?"

"Nah, just forget it okay?"

Tristana blinked. "Okay. Anyway we have a match now, ARAM in the howling abyss. We're on the same team!"

I have a match? I thought the league had cancelled all its matches when Brand went MIA. When I voiced this to Tristana though she just laughed.

"Well, yeah, but Brand's been found now. So the matches are back on!" my face must have shown what I was feeling because Tristana frowned at me. "Come on. You didn't actually think they'd cancel all the matches for the day because of that do you? There're like, the major form of entertainment on this continent!"

I looked down. I did expect them to cancel the matches for the day. But I guess when you have a lot of money; all you can think of is making more. Those greedy League officials….

"Look Tristana, I can't compete. Valor's hurt and I don't have him with me."

Tristana frowned. "Oh yeah, I noticed that your bird wasn't with you. I just thought you had him in your dorm or something…but anyway you can't fight? But that means we'll have to go 4 v 5. That's not going to be fair."

I bowed my head. "Sorry Trish."

Tristana quickly said. "No, no. It should be me apologizing. I heard what happened with Brand and you deserve a little break. We'll be fine; we can wi 5. You need to get some rest Quinn. Sorry." She got up and started to walk away. "I'll tell the league to take you off the select for the rest of the day. Take care okay?"

"Yeah…thanks." I watched as Tristana turned to go into battle. "Hey Tristana?"

She turned around. "Yeah?"

"Do you know where Swain is?"

Tristana glance at me with a puzzled expression. "Swain? Why do you need to find him? Never mind it's none of my business." She quickly added before looking up at the ceiling. "You know, I think he was also taken off the select, though I don't really know why." She snorted. "You should ask Teemo. That Yordle has mushrooms everywhere. I don't even know how he figures out who's near the mushrooms but he does." She gritted her teeth. "That creep."

I shuddered knowing exactly why Tristana was so angry with Teemo. A few months ago Vi had suffered a particularly brutal loss against a team led by Caitlyn. She was so distraught that she requested a private bath and ended up crying in it. But as she was about to leave, a mushroom had randomly exploded in the sink, revealing her to Teemo, and in a few minutes everyone knew Vi had cried in the bathtub.

The next few _days_ had resulted in Vi chasing a screaming Teemo every time she saw him, threatening to crush the little…well I won't go into detail about what exactly she threatened, but it wasn't exactly the nicest thing you could threaten someone.

Eventually, Tristana got Teemo out of it by telling Vi the mushroom must have ended up there by accident, It must of fell into the pipes or something. Her compensation was making Teemo promise he'd never plant mushrooms again, and allowing Vi to punch Teemo once as hard as she could.

Teemo had a broken jaw for 4 weeks.

After which he promptly broke his promise by planting a mushroom Tristana found in her closet, which Teemo claims he knew nothing about.

Teemo had a broken groin for 2 weeks.

But if one thing was clear from this whole ordeal, it was this: Teemo's mushrooms were everywhere and everyone knew about them. People started making a habit of checking around for shrooms before they got on with their private business.

But every time you met Teemo, he would have this creepy yet innocent smile, telling you he _knows, _and he even dropped obvious hints that he knew, and no one really trusted him-not even his own fellow teammates.

But it was clear that Tristana did have a point. I have not talked to Teemo at all and it was more likely that he knew where Swain was then any of the other champions I've asked.

"Where is Teemo?" I asked Tristana

She sighed unhappily."Where do ya think? He's in his private garden." She snorted. "Plantin' mushrooms."

I nodded. "Okay, thanks." I set off in the direction of Teemo's garden.

Teemo's garden wasn't connected to the rest of the league facilities. Instead it was just outside, next to it. It was basically a small greenhouse, big enough for it to be noticed, but not nearly interesting enough for it to catch your attention.

When I got there the door was locked. So I knocked. The door opened to reveal the short Yordle with the adorable yet infuriating grin.

"Hi Quinn! Need to find Swain, huh?"

I started, not knowing what to think of the fact that he already seemed to know I was going to come to ask that. I decided to ignore it because, well, it was only natural for the little creep to know that. After all I did spend the entire day asking around for him. It was probably easy for Teemo to figure out.

"Uh, yeah" I replied after a few moments. "Do you know where he is?"

"Yup!" Teemo proclaimed, and then he continued to grin.

"…Can you tell me?"

"Hmm….What's in it for me?"

I sighed. Of course he'd want something in return.

"What do you want? I'm not as rich as the other champions."

Teemo laughed. "Money? I don't need money. I get paid enough back in Bandle City." He continued to grin at me, in that eerie and cute manner.

"What do you want then?"

"Information!" Teemo cheered. "I give you info, you give me info. Seems fair right?"

I stared at him. "And what info could you possibly want that I have?"

"Oh, that's an easy one." Teemo giggled. "Information about Demacia, of course! I am a scout for Bandle City, so that means I've got to find out as much as I can about the other regions. Specifically, the type of champions that hail from there." Teemo's eye sparkled. "I want you to tell me about Lux, the lady of luminosity."

I blinked. "Why not just ask her then?"

Teemo hurriedly coughed and looked away. "Ahem…I am not on the friendliest terms with the Crownguards at the moment….and the information I want is a bit personal."

"…Personal?"

"Yes." Teemo looked up at me. "I want you to tell me what's going on between Lux and Ezreal."

I frowned at him. "Lux and Ezreal? I don't know anything about that. What makes you think that something is going on between them?"

Teemo gritted his teeth, making him look like as intimidating as an angry bunny. "Last match I had. ARAM. Howling abyss. The shopkeeper said something about Lux to him. Rumors or something like that."

"So? It's his uncle. The man spent his whole life freezing in the Howling Abyss and accomplishing absolutely nothing. He's probably just trying to tease Ezreal. It's probably the only way he has fun these days."

"Perhaps….but!" Teemo declared. "I am a scout! My job is to find out everything I can about opposing champions as I can. If there is a lead I follow it. That's what I do!"

"Okay, why would Bandle City possibly need to know something as personal as that?" I inquired.

Teemo shrugged. "You never know what could come in handy. Say the league collapses and Bandle City goes to war with Demacia. If Lux and Ezreal were together, we could kidnap Ezreal and demand ransom for him, giving us the upper hand."

A sudden image of Garen and Jarvan begging on their knees to a bunch of evilly laughing Teemos flashed through my head. I shook my head to get rid of it.

"Okay, look. I don't know anything about Lux and Ezreal. Couldn't you ask something else?"

"No!" Teemo glared at me. "I have to know!"

"But I don't know anything!"

"Which is why you're going to find out for me." Teemo replied smugly.

I blanched. "You want me to _stalk _Lux for you?"

Teemo shook his head. "No, no, no! I'd never ask someone to stalk for me! I just want you to go up to her and ask!" I stared incredulously at him for a second before he lowered his voice to an annoyed pitch. "Do you want to know where Swain is or not?"

I sighed exasperatedly. "Fine, I'll do it."

Teemo grinned broadly. "Great! hold this mushroom so I can watch what's going on." I stared at him in disbelief. He frowned at me. "No need to worry, it will turn invisible after a few seconds. And it probably won't explode. As long as you don't aggravate it."

"_Aggravate _it?"

"Yeah…" Teemo said uncertainly. "Well…Good luck, have fun!" With that, he closed the door to his greenhouse and I was left to go find Lux.

Luckily, Lux was one of the people I had asked when I was looking for Swain. She was in the Demacian dorms. So that's where I headed.

When I got there, Lux was still there twirling her staff around and watching one of the league games on those giant screens. I called out to her and she smiled and waved me over to the single giant blue sofa in the middle of the room.

"Look, Quinn- Jarvan just totally dunked Ryze!" she exclaimed in delight. I sat down next to her and turned my attention to the screen where a replay was showing Jarvan loudly yelling 'Demacia' and trapping Ryze, a mage, from escaping. The screen then showed in slow motion Jarvan whacking Ryze rapidly with his absurdly long pole. It was quite the spectacle. But that wasn't what I came here for. I took a deep breath and-

Well, I didn't really know what to say. How does one go about asking a question like this? I didn't really have any experience. I guess the best way to do so is to just flat out ask.

"Hey Lux?"

"Yeah?"

"Is there anything going on between you and Ezreal?"

Lux froze, and I doubted whether flat out asking was the best strategy after all. Slowly, she turned toward me.

"Wh-Why-" She quickly cleared her throat. "Why would you think that…that anything would be going on between us?"

I shrugged. "I don't know." It was kind of the truth, after all. Lux didn't seem to like that response though.

"You don't know?!" She practically yelled, before clearing her throat again. "I-I mean…sorry Quinn…but why would you ask a question like that completely for no reason?"

"Well…" I couldn't exactly be truthful again and tell her it was because Teemo put me up to this. "I'm just curious…and I've noticed you two have been hanging out a lot lately." I added the lie.

Lux's face paled. "Yo-You have? Where?"

"Uh…" I struggled to think of something. "You two were at the atrium recently…right?"

"Oh-oh.." Lux calmed down a bit. "Look Quinn, Ezreal and I are just friends. We enjoy each other's company and he has so many stories about his adventures that are just so wonderful and fascinating to hear about."

I studied her for a minute. "So you two are just friends ,huh?"

"Yeah," Lux replied sheepishly, with almost a… disappointed tone? "

But I wasn't ready to let this go yet. The way she had reacted earlier was a bit suspicious. Maybe she was just acting. In my head, I decided to compose a final test to see if she really was or not. I called her name and she focused me once more. I stared her dead in the eye and with the best matter-of-fact tone I could muster I told her:

"Good. Because I'm going out with him."

Lux's jaw nearly fell off her face. "Yo-Your WHAT?!" She screamed at me. "WHE-WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?"

I laughed. I couldn't help it. That reaction was too hilarious "Calm down Lux, I'm just kidding."

She blinked uncomprehendingly before she repeated "Your just j-joking?"

"Yeah."

She glared daggers at me "Very funny, Quinn!"

"Thanks," I replied. "Relax though, that was just a final test to see if you were going out with him or not. See, if you were dating him, you'd already know I was joking, but since you reacted as strongly as _that…_"

Lux continued to keep her disapproving gaze on me for a few seconds, but did drop it eventually with a sigh. "I can't believe you'd do that to me."

I smirked at her. "Yeah, but at least I'm convinced now that you're really not dating Ezreal."

"And she never will!"

Lux and I gave a start as we turned toward the new voice that entered the conversation. Garen Crownguard-Lux's older brother- entered the room wearing that heavy-looking blue armor and a stern frown painted on his face.

"Sister," He addressed Lux, "Why would you ever even _consider _courting with that boney 'champion' who's ego is bigger than the size of Demacia justice?"

Lux got up and glowered right back at her brother. "Why would _you _even consider telling me what I can and can't do?"

Garen growled right back. "I am your older brother. I know what's best for you. And if you end up marrying that sad excuse for an explorer than it will be the worst decision you've ever made."

Lux snorted in contempt. "Says the guy who has a crush the size of Demacia justice times two on a Noxian."

Garen turned red. "I do NOT have a crush on Katarina!"

"Katarina?" Lux sang innocently. "I don't remember mentioning Katarina." Lux looked down at me. "Did I mention Katarina, Quinn?"

"Uh…"

"You implied it!" Garen cut in angrily.

"Or maybe you just made that connection in your mind because you know it true." Lux simpered at her brother.

"You-you-ARGH!" Garen face me. "Quinn, could you leave for a second? I need to have a small chat with my _baby _sister."

'_uh oh' _I turned toward Lux who was looking like she was imagining blowing Garen's head up.

"Yes leave, Quinn" Lux spoke up, dangerously. "I need to talk with Mr. Love-struck-with-the-Noxians here."

I did not want a part in this anyway. "Uh, sure." I spoke in as low of a voice I could. It felt like you could cut the tension with a knife. Actually forget the knife. The way these two were scowling at each other, you could cut the tension with a toothpick.

As slowly as I could, I got off the couch and made my way to the exit. Cautiously, I closed the door like it was a time bomb and closed it so it would make the smallest noise when shut. But, despite my best efforts, as soon as I closed shouts like gunfire popped in the Demacian dormitories. The Crownguards usually did get along well. But never be anywhere near them when they have a family spat.

I made my way back to Teemo's garden, still a bit shaken up, but no worse for the wear. The same routine happened. It was locked, I knocked, Teemo answered. But this time, instead of his usual 'I'm going to kill you but look how fluffy I am' smile. He had a frown.

"Aww…Quinn why didn't you stay? I could have picked up very useful information from that 'chat'"

"Didn't you hear them? They asked me to leave."

Teemo's frown deepened. "Yeah I know, but…."

I cut in. "Whatever. I got your information. You asked me to find out if something was going on between Lux and Ezreal and I found it out. Now you hold up your end of the bargain fuzzball."

Teemo snorted. "Fuzzball. I've never heard that one before. Fine Quinn. Swain and his crow are in the Noxian Dormitories. "

"Finally, thanks I-wait." I narrowed my eyes at him. "Are you sure about that? I searched the Noxian Dormitories for him already."

Teemo beamed innocently at me. "Well, I'm not lying; he was there."

'_Wait a second- was?'_

"How long ago _was _it?"

Teemo shrugged nonchalantly. "About a day ago."

"A DAY?"

"Yeah. Why, what's the matter?"

"I want to know where he is now!"

"Ohhhh" Teemo said like he just figured out. "Now….right….well….let's see…." He paused for a second and tilted his head to the side thoughtfully. Then he burst into a wide grin. "I don't know!"

Great. So I just wasted about a half an hour of my life doing this pests dirty work and I wasn't even going to get anything in return. What the heck was I doing with my life?

Teemo gave me a irritated look, as if he was the one who was getting the short end of the stick even though I did all his work for him, and simply stated. "If you wanted to know where he is now, why not ask Twisted Fate? After all," He puffed. "He can find any champion at any time he wants. If you ask me, he's the real stalker around here." I could of sworn he said that with a tint of jealously.

I sighed. Twisted Fate. Why didn't I think of him from the start? "And I suppose you know where Twisted Fate is?"

Teemo brightened up. "Actually I do! He's in a highly ranked match right now. It should be over any minute now."

"Great." I muttered more to myself than Teemo. "So that means all I have to do is go to the lobby-"

"And he'll probably be there once his match is over." Teemo finished. "You're welcome. Teemo was a great help to you once again."

I stared at him "What do you mean 'once again'? You didn't even do what I asked to do originally!"

Teemo gave me another shrug. "I helped you find help that will help you do you want."

"Yeah, but-"

"And that's all that really matters. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got mushrooms to plant. See ya!" With that, he shut the door to his little greenhouse again.

With that pleasant exchange, I headed off to the lobby to speak with TF. As I sat there, I watched as a bunch of bruised champions walked out of the teleporter, groaning, holding their back, growling, drinking out of a barrel, and things like that. Finally the bowed head of Twisted Fated strolled out, with his hat pulled over his eyes, absentmindedly twirling a card in his right hand, a sly grin on his face telling the story of the battle he was just in.

"Fate!" I called out to him.

TF raised his head up to look up at me, with that same grin, obviously in a good mood.

"Well, well, well." He chortled. "Must be my lucky day. How can I help you, Quinn?"

"Can you use destiny to find Swain?" I asked.

"Destiny?" Fate exclaimed. Then he gave wry chuckle. "Come of it, Quinn, you should know as well as anyone I can't use that outside the fields of justice." He leaned it toward me and whispered in my ear. "At least, I'm not _supposed _to…"

I don't exactly remember what happened last time to be honest. But I do recall it was around the time he was dating Evelyn. I also think that's part of the reason they broke up. In essence, Twisted Fate was the original Teemo.

Twisted Fate backed off and gave me a hard stare. "Who are you trying to find anyway?"

"Swain."

"Swain?! Are you kidding me?" I jumped at his sudden angry outburst. "What does that guy have that I don't?"

I looked at him confusedly. "Information…" I replied hesitantly.

"Info-Information?" Fate trailed off abruptly. "O-Oh. My apologies Quinn. Didn't mean to raise a racket like that."

"It's fine." It really wasn't fine. "Just…can you find Swain for me?"

"Already did." Fate stated proudly. I gaped at him.

"You already used destiny?"

"Hehe…no." Fate laughed. "I just know where he is. All the Noxians know. He's in Noxus because Sona is going to be performing a concert yonder there." Fate frowned at me. "It's been the talk in the Noxian dormitories for the past week and a half now."

I don't talk to Noxians. Not usually anyway. I informed Fate about that.

Fate gave me a disappointed glance. "Suit yourself. You'll miss out on a lot if you only talk to your own dorm."

It only occurred to me after I was walking away that maybe he just called Demacia boring.

But I didn't have time to worry about that. I had a lead to follow. And I intended to follow it.

Even if it lead me to Noxus.

**Edit: Fixed the part about the dead ghost dude. Also, notice that Quinn's "final test" for Lux/Ezreal isn't very final :p. That didn't prove anything and I did that on purpose. Maybe Ezreal doesn't tell her things...**


	6. Morgana's Warning

As I headed out in the direction that would take me to Noxus, I ran into the fallen angel herself- Morgana.

To those who don't know her, Morgana is a sinister-looking, scar-faced, crazy, venomous, diabolical lunatic who's main method of attacking in the fields of justice are snaring her hapless enemies in darkness and proceeds to torment the soil beneath them, and then she binds them with dark chains and in capitates them, all the while scowling menacingly as her foes "feel her pain".

She greeted me warmly and gave me a muffin.

The thing is, all the stuff I said is true-in the fields of justice. Outside the fields of justice, she's an excellent and friendly food cart operator, who happens to have an odd scar on her face.

I'll be honest I don't really trust her completely. But her muffins sure taste good.

"Thanks Morgana." I told her.

"It's no hassle." She replied kindly. "Where are you heading off to, Quinn?"

"Noxus." I gritted my teeth. Can't really help it.

"Noxus?" Morgana repeated quizzically. "Don't you hate that place?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Well…it's not such a bad place." Morgana assured me softly. "Really, they were the nicest people to me when I was trying to set up my bakery. They told me that of course I could set up my bakery there because I was a champion in the fields of justice, I have already proven my strength and I could do what I wanted-as long as I wasn't going to challenge anyone. The other city-states told me I was too.." Morgana trailed off before continuing. "Evil."

"Well, that's great then. But do you think they'd let a Demacian in?"

Morgana hesitated. "…No."

I sighed. Figures.

"They did seem rather…against Demacians." Morgana continued. "Why do you want to go over there?"

"It's a long story."

"I've got time."

I peered at her. "You sure?"Morgana merely nodded. "Fine then…"

Morgana wore a blank expression as I started retold my story. However, as I recounted the later events, it changed to a much darker expression (Quite frightening actually, considering how dark she already looked). Eventually it got so dark I wondered whether or not I should even finish my retelling. But how would I end it? So I kept on at it.

"…And that's why I..uh.. need to go to Noxus." I finished. By this time, Morgana had probably the scariest face I've ever seen in my life. "…Is something wrong?"

Morgana studied me coldly. "How long has it been since you saw him?"

"Uh…I don't know. It's been a long time."

"That's all that matters." She responded venomously. "Don't find him."

I blinked, confused. "What..? Why?"

"Don't look for him." Morgana's voice cracked. "Trust me."

"I don't understand…"

Morgana sighed sadly. "Of course you don't. How could you? Neither did I. But I know now. I wish I didn't."

"Know what?" I implored.

Morgana gave me a sad look. "It won't matter. You're going to do it anyway."

"_Know what?" _

"Fine." Morgana bitterly spat. "I'll tell you. But it won't make a difference."

"Will you just tell me already?"

Morgana gave me a long and sympathetic look, in stark contrast to the deadly serious look earlier. She opened her mouth as if she were about to speak, but hesitated. Finally she spoke.

"I used to be in the exact situation." Morgana told me very remorsefully. "I know how this will turn out."

I stamped my foot impatiently. "Just say it already!"

She gave me one final somber look before finally talking.

"My sister Kayle…you know how I feel about her." I blinked, unsure what to make of her tone. It didn't sound cheerful, but it didn't sound how it usually did when she talked about her sister. It was almost wistful. "She and I were…not always enemies. In fact, we used to be the best of…" Morgana hesitated. "…friends. It was a long time ago." She added quickly.

"We played together. We laughed together. We told our dreams to each other. I remember hers so clearly. She said 'I'm gonna be the best ruler ever!' At the time, I thought nothing of it. She had everything she needed to do that. I, on the other hand, never really wanted to rule. Honestly, I would be content just to see the one I loved bringing our realm to tranquility. In fact, I wanted to help. That's the reason I went into cooking in the first place, to be able to cook for my sister, for our kingdom.

"I learned every dish our land had to offer, I walked from person to person, asking for secret recipes, all the most delicious meals they have ever ate. I mastered every single one of them. But I felt it wasn't enough. Immortals will tend to get bored of food. So I looked outside our land to Runeterra, where I was a nobody. I spent years journeying around Runeterra, perhaps even decades. However, people were a lot more reluctant to give up their secret recipes to a stranger. But I tried. In the midst of my adventuring I met a refugee from my kingdom. The man was condemned. He begged me to not send him back to our kingdom. He told me that if I were to send him back, Kayle would surely kill him. I refused to believe that. 'My sister would never do such a thing!' I thought. So I sent him back. At the end of my journey I did manage to get some good recipes from a number of more friendly chefs, including some from the very person who started this league, Reginald Ashram. I was happy. It was enough, I felt, to please my sister for a long enough time. And that's all I ever really wanted, to please my sister Kayle.

"But when I came back what did I see? Kayle's tyranny. Her utter lack of compassion and care for the fates of everyone. She was too obsessed to see anyone's heart from her own. The only thing she wanted was to purge evil from existence, it didn't matter to her if you were truly evil. If she saw you as foul, she struck you down.

"I saw this young boy. He was pleading for his life, begging for a second chance. He must of done some terrible things, to be judged by Kayle at such a young age. But Quinn….he was so _young_! He had much growing to do. He had his whole life to change. He had a whole future in front of him. What did Kayle do?

"She struck him down. Without even the slightest sign of doubt.

"Is that fair, Quinn? Because to me it seemed abominable. This wasn't the only instance of it happening either. I knew in some cases in had to be done. But by no means does this have to happen _that_ often. It got to the point that I became sick of cooking for her. Imagine that: something that I loved to do was now causing me strife to do it.

"So I went to the people. I asked our residence if they thought it was fair. I planned to garner their support to petition Kayle to stop. But Kayle got wind early. She had a tantrum. I vividly remember what she told me that day. If I didn't support her, I would be thrown out of the kingdom. But how could I support her? What she was doing, it wasn't justice….it was murder! But when I told her that I couldn't support what she was doing, she not only threw me out, she viciously assaulted and disowned me.

"The pain I went through…you cannot imagine how much pain I went through. It ate at me for what I felt was an eternity, the despair I felt. Do you think I always looked like this Quinn? I am Kayle's sister. Have you ever wondered why I look nothing like her? Kayle did this. She made sure it would be impossible to get anyone's sympathy. Do you know how it felt, having your own sister disown you? How she made sure no one would ever approach you again? It destroyed me. So I vowed revenge. I searched all over Runeterra again, but instead of asking for recipes to please my sister, I looked for ways to destroy her. But not even friendly people wanted to have anything to do with me after what Kayle did. Eventually, I found a way. A sorcerer as hideous as I was heard my plight and was willing to teach me. The things that the sorcerer taught were forbidden in my kingdom, the black arts. But I was banned from my kingdom so what did it matter? So I learned it. Then a lucky break for me happened. Reginald Ashram remembered me, and promised to aid me in my fight. With all my power and new allies I felt I could finally challenge Kayle. I traveled back to my kingdom to give Kayle what she deserved, my revenge.

"Just as I was about to strike her down, however, I was teleported back to Valoran. Apparently, I was double-crossed _again, _this time by Reginald. He made a deal with Kayle that if he kept me from demolishing her she would fight for his league. Which meant my sister had bested me again.

"I fight in this league in the hopes of fighting my sister. I fight to get stronger and become a better ruler. I fight to get support, to draw attention to Kayle's cruelty. But I didn't have too.

"If I had remained at my sister's side, instead of traveling for recipes, who knows what would have happened. I might have been able to keep her from being such a merciless dictator. Perhaps, we would rule together. Instead, I left her alone for a too long period of time. I didn't see her for years. When a man told me that she had changed, I cast him aside, probably sending him to his death. Time changes people, Quinn, even their own kin. If your brother is in Noxus, Quinn, and you hate Noxians…than you probably should not look for him." Morgana finished.

I broke out of my stupefaction of her story and gave her a shake of my head. "My brother hasn't changed."

Morgana gave me a pitiful look. "How would you know?" I stayed silent. "That's what I thought too, you know. I assure you though, if he lives in Noxus, he definitely he isn't the same brother that you lived with in Demacia."

I shook my head. "He hasn't changed."

"Why does he live in Noxus then?" Again, I didn't answer that. "Quinn, I assure you if he lives in Noxus with Swain and the others, he most certainly likes it there. Are you okay with that?"

"He's my brother." I replied slowly

"That doesn't answer my question."

There was a heavy pause as the two of us stared at each other, neither of us making much of a movement. I shifted around before I broke the silence.

"He's my brother," I repeated. "And I will do anything to find him."

Morgana sighed. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

"He's my brother." I kept saying over and over again.

Morgana shook her head. "He was your brother. Time changes things."

I walked off in the direction of Noxus, dazed and confused, Morgana's last words echoing in my head. Would I be okay if he acted Noxian? I tried to find one redeeming quality that Noxians had. I didn't come up with a single one. The Caleb I knew would never consent to being called a Noxian. During some of our games we even pretend that sometimes we were destroying their city! But why would Caleb align with the Noxian leader if that's the case? Was Morgana right?

I shook my head. It didn't matter. I didn't even know if he was even _alive _yet. All that mattered was that Caleb is my brother, and I will do whatever it takes to find him if he is.

**Oh geez, it's been a long time. Thanks school and LoL. It's probably going to be another long time before I get the next one out. Anyway the sad thing is, I read over it and nothing really even gets done in this chapter. Sorry about that. It's just that I had this idea for the last chapter and didn't put it in because I felt it was long enough already. But I really wanted to include it, because well, I thought it was good. Did you feel it was good? I hope so.**

**I was thinking of one quote the whole time I was writing and nearly titled the chapter this:**

**"Feel my Swain"**

**But that sounds weird so I didn't do it. **

**So if I made any mistakes or anything be sure to point it out. I just realized that it wasn't the dead ghost in ARAM that told Ezreal he was dating Lux, it was his uncle on the other side, which makes much more sense. Now, I feel really dumb. Or you know, if I made grammar mistakes that'd be nice to point out too. **

**Till' next time.**


End file.
